


That Strawberry Sugar High

by RayShippouUchiha



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Sugar Daddy, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Urahara Kisuke, Bad Parent Kurosaki Isshin, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Humor, Hurt Kurosaki Ichigo, Kisuke Said "Oh No Hope I Don't Fall", M/M, My Canon Now Kubo, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Possessive Urahara Kisuke, Post-Winter War (Bleach), Protective Urahara Kisuke, Romance, Sugar Baby Kurosaki Ichigo, Sugar Daddy Urahara Kisuke, We Take Canon Out Back And Put It Out Of Our Misery, You Know - Like A Liar, future smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:33:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29409135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RayShippouUchiha/pseuds/RayShippouUchiha
Summary: “Our spar today was very satisfying,” Kisuke tells him absently, eyes taking in whatever details he can, from the way Ichigo holds the bag carefully to the red he can see staining the tips of Ichigo’s ears.  “You deserve a treat.”“Thanks,” Ichigo says the word slowly, almost as if he’s tasting it, or like the word’s sitting thick and heavy on his tongue for some reason.“You’re very welcome,” Kisuke tells him softly as he brings his hands back out of his sleeves.  “Now don’t let me keep you.  You said you had places to be.”
Relationships: Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke
Comments: 58
Kudos: 671





	That Strawberry Sugar High

Ichigo sighs, deep and heavy, as he scrubs his hands over his face. His fingers tangle in his hair as he drops his head down to rest on the table top in front of him.

He bangs his forehead against the table top a few times before he forces himself to stop, hands sliding down to press against his face again as he rests his elbows on the table.

He’s just so … _tired_.

Exhausted, really. Scrapped out and worn thin in a way he’s never really been before.

Which, considering the messes he’s been getting into for basically his entire life, is probably saying something.

But at least when he was dealing with ghosts and fighting supernatural wars his problems were all basically one specific but ultimately manageable type of obstacle for him to overcome.

What he’s up against now is different.

Because when it was just Ichigo and the others up against various hollows and crazed shinigami he’d known what to do.

Fight.

That was what had been expected of him, what had been _necessary_.

Ichigo had been meant to fight. Meant to turn the ocean of reiryoku inside of him to a purpose and then not falter until he achieved his goal.

If Ichigo got hurt then he’d just have to push the pain down and away, tucking it all into that fist sized spot in his chest to deal with later or never at all.

And then he’d have to force himself back up onto his feet and fight even harder still.

If he bled then he’d wipe it away and keep moving. If he died then he’d walk it off.

It had never been easy exactly but it had been manageable, had been cut and dried.

Now, sitting in a dark living room and staring down at a stack of bills and an account balance that falls just short no matter how he reworks it, Ichigo’s not sure what he’s supposed to do.

But he does know that he’ll have to figure it out.

One way or another.

Because there’s no one else who will.

~~~

Fan raised to cover the frown he can’t seem to bite all the way back, Kisuke takes a moment to just observe Ichigo without his wayward almost student realizing it.

And Kisuke isn’t sure he likes what he sees _at all_.

Because it only takes him a few seconds to realize that, fresh out of their sparring match or not, Ichigo looks _tired_. Looks wrung out and _diminished_ in a way that goes beyond the physical somehow.

There are lines bracketing his mouth that didn’t used to be there as far as Kisuke can remember. A tension in his shoulders and furrowing his brows that not even their spar has managed to completely erase.

And there’s a certain sort of dishevelment to Ichigo that Kisuke can’t quite put his finger on but still knows feels out of place. Something’s off with his clothes, with the way even his hair’s been left to go long for once, now a shaggy sunset mess that hangs down well below his collar.

“ _Ichigo-chan_ ,” Kisuke finally calls playfully, a part of him still enjoying the more relaxed formalities that time has made normal between them. “How is everything?”

Ichigo, in the process of pulling on his shoes, abruptly goes still.

“Why?” Brows furrowed in that way Kisuke’s beginning to realize is now common, Ichigo blinks up at him for a moment in clear confusion before his eyes squint sharply. “What’d you want?”

“So _hostile_ ,” Kisuke flutters his fan in Ichigo’s direction even as he slips around the counter and pulls down one of the large glass containers off of the shelf. “Can’t a humble shopkeeper ask after his favorite wayward pupil?”

“A humble shopkeeper? Sure,” Ichigo agrees, pushing himself upright and stretching his arms up above his head, shirt riding up in a way that Kisuke’s eyes automatically track as he opens the container and grabs a bag from beneath the counter. “But we both know that’s not you. So why’re you really asking?”

“No particular reason,” Kisuke reassures him even as he moves around behind the counter, hands sure and steady in his task. “Just curious.”

“You know what they say about curiosity,” Ichigo reminds him.

“It’s the mother of all invention?” Kisuke bandies back, expression innocent.

“For you?” Ichigo huffs just a bit. “Yeah, maybe. But I don’t have time for your curiosity tonight, Geta-bōshi. I’ve got places to be.”

“Fine, fine,” Kisuke sighs as dramatically as possible. “Be cruel to your poor old mentor now that you no longer need him.”

The look Ichigo shoots him is as dry as the sands of Hueco Mundo. Possibly drier, Kisuke would have to conduct tests to be sure of course.

“But,” Kisuke keeps going even as he caps the counter and then moves back around the counter, closing the distance between them with a few short strides, “before you abandon me to my curiosity, take these with you.”

Kisuke holds the bag that’s practically bursting with watermelon flavored gummy candy out in Ichigo’s direction.

For a long moment Ichigo just stares at the bag before he shoots a questioning look up in Kisuke’s direction.

Finally Kisuke just reaches out and taps the underside of one of Ichigo’s arms with his fan to nudge it up, a part of him pleased with the way Ichigo automatically moves to obey his silent instruction. Then he places the bulging bag on Ichigo’s outstretched palm and lets it go, taking a step back and folding his hands into his sleeves. He is, of course, counting on Ichigo’s reflexes and inborn unwillingness to let the bag fall and spill on the floor automatically kicking in.

Which they do, of course, as Ichigo’s other hand comes up to curl around the listing bag automatically.

“Those are your favorite aren’t they?” Kisuke asks, attention trained firmly on Ichigo’s face.

“Y-Yeah,” Ichigo stops, clears his throat, continues. “Yeah these are ... _good_. I like them.”

There’s a pause.

Standing there across from him, candy in hand, Ichigo looks almost lost.

“Our spar today was very satisfying,” Kisuke tells him absently, eyes taking in whatever details he can, from the way Ichigo holds the bag carefully to the red he can see staining the tips of Ichigo’s ears. “You deserve a treat.”

“Thanks,” Ichigo says the word slowly, almost as if he’s tasting it, or like the word’s sitting thick and heavy on his tongue for some reason.

“You’re very welcome,” Kisuke tells him softly as he brings his hands back out of his sleeves. “Now don’t let me keep you. You said you had places to be.”

Ichigo doesn’t say anything else, just tucks the bag of candy closer to his chest, grabs his bag from the hook by the door, and goes.

Tapping the edge of his fan against his bottom lip as he watches Ichigo slip out of the Shōten’s door, Kisuke hums just a bit.

The look of absolute and somehow _heartbreaking_ surprise and soft delight that had spread across Ichigo’s face in those seconds after Kisuke had told him the candy was a gift feel as if it's been seared directly into Kisuke’s mind.

No, Kisuke thinks absently to himself, something about this just won’t do at all.

~~~

Candy clutched in hand, Ichigo speeds down the streets and back alleys of Karakura, letting his feet lead him to his evening shift at _Unagiya Shop_ on auto-pilot.

A part of him knows that he’s being ridiculous, knows that he’s overreacting to what just happened. It’s just a bag of candy given to him by a man who runs a candy shop. A shady, supernatural aligned candy shop, but still a candy shop. It’s not that big of a deal.

Ichigo knows that. He _does_.

But at the same time the rest of him can’t quite seem to accept that.

Because it’s been so long since anyone has given Ichigo anything.

And with money being as tight as it’s been over the past year it’s also been a while since he’s been able to buy anything even half as frivolous as candy for himself.

Isshin’s decision to return to life as a shinigami and a member of the Shiba Clan had left Ichigo and the twins reeling. Though, admittedly, for different reasons.

Yuzu and Karin had, and despite their separate issues with Isshin still do, felt more than a bit abandoned by the decision. Even the few letters that have passed in their direction through the Shōten have done little to ease that feeling in either of the girls.

But, with his powers returned to him and a friend circle that, for a variety of reasons, stayed broken, Ichigo had been left with an entirely different passel of problems to deal with.

Problems like how the stipend Isshin had set up to help care for Yuzu and Karin didn’t come close to covering the bills each month no matter how Ichigo worked and reworked things.

Finances have never been Isshin’s strong suit, as Ichigo has long known. It’s just his own brand of luck that this time it’s really coming back to bite Ichigo in the ass.

And, with the majority of his time during the day dedicated to his college courses, what supplemental income he is able to bring in is barely enough to allow them to scrape by most months.

If it wasn’t for the jobs _Unagiya Shop_ sent him out on and the modest pay each of them provides, Ichigo wouldn’t have enough money to keep them afloat.

It’s gotten to the point that Ichigo’s seriously considering pausing his own education for a while so he can take on some extra jobs. It wouldn’t be permanent of course, maybe just a few extra years until Yuzu and Karin are older and off to university themselves.

Once they’re settled more securely in life he would be free to worry about his own future beyond surviving the day to day.

He doesn’t want to but, well, the twins come first for Ichigo. Always have and always will.

Even if they’re not as close as they once were, time and a variety of circumstances having forced a distance between them that Ichigo actively loathes, there’s still nothing Ichigo wouldn’t do to make sure they have everything they could want or need.

Ichigo shakes the thoughts off and takes a second to slip the candy into his shoulder bag when the _Unagiya Shop_ front finally comes into view. There’ll be time to contemplate his options later.

For now he has work to do and money to earn.

~~~

When Ichigo finally gets home after his evening shift and makes his way up the stairs into his bedroom, he puts that bag of candy on his desk before he drags himself off to shower.

And later, when he’s laying in bed and willing sleep to finally come, he can’t help but look over at it and _smile_.

**Author's Note:**

> Come let me know what you need, darlings.
> 
> And don't forget to check out the AU tag
> 
> https://rayshippouuchiha.tumblr.com/tagged/That-Strawberry-Sugar-High-AU/chrono


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